More Americans Making the Grade

More than 83 percent of Americans age 25 and older graduated from high school, and over 25 percent have at least a college degree — both record highs according to new Census Bureau statistics.

In March 1999, 83.4 percent of Americans 25 and older had high school diplomas, up from 24.5 percent in 1940, the earliest records available, and 77.6 percent in 1990, Census data being released today shows. The percentage of people within the same age group with a bachelor’s degree increased to 25.2 percent, from 4.6 percent in 1940 and 21.3 percent 10 years ago.

“Given the very large differences in education between younger and older age groups, the attainment level of the total population will continue to rise for some time as younger, more-educated age groups replace older, less-educated ones,” Census analyst Eric Newburger said.

More Work Needs to Be Done

The statistics are in line with other studies done on the country’s educational attainment, education advocates said. But while applauding the improvement, they noted that more work needs to be done in improving education levels for minorities, and especially Hispanics.

By race, 84.3 percent of whites had a high school degree in 1999, compared with 77 percent of blacks and 56.1 percent of Hispanics; 25.9 percent of whites had at least a bachelor’s degree in 1999, compared with 15.4 percent of blacks and 10.9 percent of Hispanics.

The disparity is even more pronounced with foreign-born Hispanics, said Linda Chavez, president of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a Washington-based group that has been critical of current bilingual education programs. Forty-four percent of foreign-born Hispanics in the United States had graduated from high school as of last year, compared with more than 70 percent of native-born Hispanics.

Chavez said greater emphasis needs to be placed on higher education on young Hispanics born in the country, and “more emphasis on delaying entrance in the job market.”